Academic Half Day

Every week, fellows have a dedicated half-day of workshops with the goal of enhancing the knowledge and skills critical to the clinical practices of hospice and palliative medicine. All of these workshops are interactive and taught by our experienced interprofessional educators and leaders within the UVM Health Network. The academic half-day consists of three components: evidence-based medicine, core workshops and ICARE curriculum.

Three female Hospice & Palliative Care fellows in a groups discussion.

The evidence-based medicine curriculum prepares fellows to make evidence-based decisions about the care of patients with serious illness. During the year you will participate in a journal club, led by one of our palliative care researchers, which will include sentinel articles in the field of Palliative Medicine. You will also have the opportunity to present at Fellows Report, where you will share a clinical case with a correlated clinical question.

The majority of academic half-days include core workshops in symptom management, including pain, dyspnea, nausea and vomiting, and constipation management. It will also include workshops on whole-person assessment, hospice regulation, bereavement, spiritual support, end-of-life care, prognostication, communication skills and more.

The academic half-day will end with the ICARE Curriculum, a series of workshops dedicated to interprofessional collaboration, advocacy, resilience and empathy. Through this series, fellows will receive trainings in narrative medicine, Balint group reflections, upstander and bystander training, and physician advocacy.

Hospice & Palliative Care Sites:

Academic Department
Larner College of Medicine at UVM

Clinical Department 
UVM Medical Center